Passing
by absentaserpis
Summary: Drabbles regarding what it might be like if the pharaoh went to modern day Egypt
1. Passing

Assume this is the pharaoh Atem from Ancient Egypt who somehow found his way into modern times and they are visiting Egypt. Yeah.

* * *

He laid prone across the bow of the felucca as it cut a lazy path through the river. The sun sat at its zenith and though it beat down mercilessly on the flimsy craft, he bore the full brunt of its power. It had been too long since he had allowed the warmth of its rays to infuse his tawny skin.

He slipped his hand into the docile waters, neither cool nor particularly warm, then drew his wet palm across his brow. It was a serene afternoon. It was placid. And it was unsettling.

"I do not understand. It is the season of Akhet."

Yuugi looked up from beneath the protection of the colorful canopy. Muted light danced around him as he shuffled through a bag for the right text. "It says here the Nile stopped flooding decades ago when they built the Aswan dam."

"Such a thing is possible?" He shifted to regard his partner more clearly. It seemed unimaginable that the power of the river could be tamed by men.

Yuugi gave a shrug. He had long since grown accustomed to the pharaoh's questions. "Sure. That way they can farm year round."

He sat up, squinting past his company, beyond the banks of the river to the city on the eastern shore. It stretched as far as he could see, obscuring all trace of cultivated land. The temple of Amun still stood in a grand state of deterioration, preceded by an expansive forecourt. He could just picture the torrid flood waters washing over those smooth tiles to lap at the gates of the first pylon. Everything in its path submerged.

With a sigh, he turned away and slid lethargically from his perch to occupy a space next to Yuugi. Reaching across him, he picked up a small doum fruit and tossed one to his partner. It was a peasant's treat but something about it reminded him of home. And just as when he was a kid, he pressed the dark, hard flesh to his lips to bite off a small chunk. It was immediate the way the rich, malty flavor burst forth in his mouth.

They waded on to the sound of the motor and summer cicadas, savoring the last of the fruit as he turned his attention to the west bank.

Yuugi had said it tasted like something called gingerbread.


	2. Evolution

From the moment they touched down in Cairo it was a constant stream of fluid shims and guttural ayns. They saw the color of his bronzed skin, high cheek bones, bright deep set eyes, and they assumed he was one of their own. They said Masri.

He said Kemet.

They never got more than a few lines in before he had to raise his hands in defeat. It hurt the way they stopped. They nodded and the disappointment was all but palatable. They said Amreeki.

—

"Do you understand any of it?" Yuugi pressed one afternoon as they sat outside a cafe tucked away in the bustling bazaar. He was sipping at a cup filled with what he liked to call sugar with a side of tea.

Atem poked at his glass of karkade, explicitly prepared with honey. "It sounds like I should but all I hear is nonsense."

Yuugi quickly turned the topic to their plans for the next day and all was lost amid the harrowing drone of the midday call to prayer filtered through crackling, ancient speakers.

—

"Let me see the map."

"You can't even tell east from north." Yuugi accused, holding the the guide book away from Atem. "Besides, there is no map."

With a hop, Atem snatched it out of his hands anyway but a quick glance confirmed it. In the space between Mari Girgis and Kasr al Sham were the words Coptic Cairo, prominent against a shaded background. He shut it promptly. Useless.

"So we're lost."

With a sigh, Yuugi retrieved the book without meeting much resistance. "It's not a very big place. Lets just stick with one road and see where that takes us."

Atem made no complaint and they continued on in silence down the cobbled street. The holy city commanded that sort of absent reverence. Though it was not without the sights he had come to expect, a stray dog shambling past or the occasional tout with dusty, imperfect relics of the past, old ghosts were lurking just around each corner, in every crevice, filling the cracked foundations.

As the road gave way to innumerable twists and turns the flaw in their plan soon became apparent. Yuugi regarded his partner, fully expecting to find him irritable and impatient but he was struck by the serene expression Atem wore. He had not displayed much interest in coming here. Cairo was beyond his time but as each passage unfurled before them it was like looking into a half living, breathing scroll. The colors had faded and the text had chipped in places, the words dated and difficult to make out but if he breathed deeply, filling his lungs to an aching abundance, he could just make out it out through the stagnant decay.

It was another minute before he felt Yuugi's eyes on him and turned. "We should ask for directions."

Yuugi nodded absently, thinking the words sounded distinctly insincere.

As they passed into the next alley they were greet by little more than a dead end and a lone solitary figure seated on the stoop. He was elderly, dressed in a glistening white tunic with his head wrapped up in a rather neat fashion. A few young cats were engaged in a tussle at his feet but he looked up as the shadow of two tourists fell upon them.

"La moakza…" Yuugi was flipping through a phrasebook as he spoke, his ah too flat and missing the kh entirely, but the man was already shaking his head and muttering something. It's meaning was universal. He didn't understand.

Disappointed, Yuugi moved to thank the man and retreat but Atem's hand was on his shoulder, pushing past him.

He said something. Something Yuugi couldn't understand. Something he understood was Egyptian.

The old man stilled and the look he turned on the pharaoh was guarded but his dark eyes lit up with curiosity. He said a bit more.

It was wrong, Atem thought to himself, like someone had taken his words and broken them into a dozen pieces. A few pieces had gotten mixed up, others lost entirely when they tried to put the puzzle back together. He turned it over in his head, the phrase which didn't make sense but he didn't quite misunderstand. If he could just find the map. Perhaps if the A became a T. The B and the P seemed to blend into one sound. With a bit of work and a lot of hope, he extracted something plausible.

Atem tried again, this time making some adjustments for the sake of his elder, because he never made concessions but he always made the effort for something he desired. And it paid off. The man relaxed, looking at the Egyptian, who was not old but neither could he be called young, like he was something of an anomaly He shuffled to the side and Atem was careful to step around the kittens as he took a seat on the step beside him.

To say Yuugi was stunned was an understatement. It was clear the exchange wasn't perfect. The old man often had to repeat himself and Atem was liable to fill in the gaps with some rather extravagant gestures. But the kind smiles and warm laughter translated into the same thing in every language.

The sinking sun provided the only indication that any time had passed and it wasn't until the shadows began to creep up the narrow walls that Atem looked up at his partner and Yuugi smiled in return, in spite of ache in his feet and the stinging reminder that the sun had warmed his back for the better part of the afternoon. It was worth it.

"He says it's that way." Atem pointed out and to the left. "We were almost there."

As they said their goodbyes and wound their way back to the church of St. George, the air begin to crackle with the sound of faraway prayers, breaking through the cloud of tension and quiet reflection.

"He invited us home for some sugar with a side of tea. I told him we might return tomorrow."

It took Yuugi a moment to understand, so used to the pharaoh's straightforward expressions. And he found that he didn't have the heart to deny him. After all, it had taken them the whole trip to find this peace.

—

Final notes: Coptic is the current evolution of the Ancient Egyptian language. Although I know this situation is somewhat improbable I just liked the idea too much to let it go.


End file.
